Louis Macneice in a note on Eliot and the Adolescent remarks that “anyhow lacrimae rerum are not a monopoly of the mature adult.” Indeed the lacrimae rerum of the adolescent are likely to be far more bitter and consuming than those of the mature adult learning to care and not to care.

So too is Byles's depiction of Brooke feeling the weight of lacrimae rerum as he looks from the deck of his ship towards the unknown lands in which he will indeed lie buried, and realizes that his duty to his country requires the renunciation of his personal dreams for the future.